Months after an avian flu outbreak swept through the elephant seal population at Año Nuevo State Park, another unusual sighting has emerged in the pinnipeds dwelling along the windswept coastline of San Mateo County.
On Saturday, park docents at Bight Beach discovered an elephant seal sporting a “strange” shade of bright purple from its flippers to its tail. This was no mishap involving Violet Beauregarde and a certain chocolate factory, however. While experts initially thought the source of the strange coloring may have been a diet of sea urchins or a more troubling cause, such as internal bleeding, they soon found the answer.
It was the bed of red algae the seal was resting on, which gave the animal its “striking appearance, just in time for Summer,” park officials wrote on Instagram.
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